Jump Start # 354 

Revelation 21:4 “And He will wipe every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 

  The apostle John who is shown the vision within the book of Revelation is describing for us “the new heaven and a new earth” that he sees. The first verse of this chapter says that the “first heaven and the first earth passed away.” Our verse today says “the first things have passed away.”

  John is identifying new things. These are not things we would find around us now, but in the future, after the passing away of these things. One of the “new things” he sees is a time and a world without sorrow and pain. That is hard for us to believe. We are surrounded with sorrow and pain. Turn on the newscast and you’ll hear about crime, disasters and death. Many of us start the day in pain. Our bones hurt. Our muscles hurt. For some, getting out of bed is painful. And there is the crying and mourning. Funeral homes, cemeteries, broken hearts and broken promises are a part of the landscape of our lives.

  There may be some depth to our verses that we don’t often explore. Our verse today is often looked upon as simply the absence of bad news. Heaven is viewed as a wonderful world of bliss, which it is. However, each of the emotions that John sees going away, “crying, mourning, sorrow and pain” all have a spiritual tie to sin. Before Adam and Eve sinned there would have been no reason for them to cry, mourn, have sorrow or pain. It was a perfect world. Then sin entered by their disobedience to God. God sent curses upon His creation. The result of these curses is what we are talking about: crying, sorrow, death, mourning and pain. All of those are connected to sin. Broken lives, guilt, shame, hurting other people, punishment are bring about these things in our verses. Sin doesn’t bring joy, just the opposite, sorrow. Sin doesn’t lead to life, just the opposite, death, especially spiritual death.

  John is describing for us what the “new heaven and new earth” will be like. He uses the negatives in our verse to tell us what is missing, what won’t be there. In doing this, John is telling us that there won’t be any sin. Sin is the cause of all those things that John says will be gone. A world without sin. The only picture we have of that is at the front of our Bibles when God first made mankind. The garden of Eden, paradise, was a world without sin. It was perfect. Man enjoyed a wonderful relationship with God. There was nothing to fear and nothing to be ashamed of. All of that changed after Adam and Eve sinned.

  To have a perfect world in which there would never be sin nor the consequences we would have to remove temptation and the influence of temptation, Satan. That is the sequence within Revelation. In chapter 20, Satan is sent to the lake of fire to be tormented forever. His absence removes the influence of temptation. It is like Eden before the serpent came and deceived.

   Can you imagine a world without temptation and sin? No apologies, because there is nothing to apologize for. No sin takes place. A world without guilt. A world without regret. A world without realizing I wish I hadn’t said that, or, I need to break these bad habits of mine.

  God is showing John that Heaven will not be like the world we are used to. It will be different. It will be a “new heaven and a new earth.” Sin will not dominate our lives. We won’t worry about doing the right thing nor fear doing the wrong thing. Satan will be out of our lives forever. Temptation will cease. All the ugliness associated with sin will be gone.

  It’s hard to believe that such a world could exist. It’ hard to realize that God would do this for us, His children. It makes you want to go there now.

  We sing, “How beautiful Heaven must be…” Indeed!

Roger